THE PROBLEM NOT MERELY ACADEMLC 165 



§ 1. Importance of the Question 



No one is at present entitled to rank the transmission of 

 " acquired characters " — i.e. somatic modifications — among the 

 facts of inheritance, and the logical place for a discussion of this 

 subject should be beside other disputed questions, like the 

 occurrence or non-occurrence of telegony. But we have given 

 special prominence to a discussion of this problem because 

 of its great importance both practically and theoretically, and 

 because of the abundant debate which has been aroused over it. 



Not a Merely Academic Problem. — The question as to the 

 transmissibility of characters acquired during life by the body 

 of the parent as the result of changes in environmental or func- 

 tional influences is much more than a technical problem for 

 biologists. Our decision in regard to it affects not only our 

 whole theory of organic evolution, but even our every-day 

 conduct. The question should be of interest to the parent, 

 the physician, the teacher, the moralist, and the social reformer 

 — in short, to us all. 



If the particular results of changes or peculiarities in individual 

 nurture, education, and experience do not directly and specifi- 

 cally affect the inherited nature of the offspring, there must 

 be a revision of some current psychological and pedagogical 

 opinions ; but it must be borne in mind that man's rich external 

 heritage of tradition and convention, custom and institution, 

 law and literature, art and science, makes his case quite peculiar, 

 for the results of man's external heritage are often such as 

 might have come about if acquired characters were heritable. 



If the particular results of changes or peculiarities in individual 

 " nurture " do not directly and specifically affect the inherited 

 nature of the offspring, there must be a revision of that theory 

 of organic evolution which is usually called Lamarckian, in 

 which it is a central postulate that whatever is acquired may 

 also be transmitted. 



